Portsmouth sues Brewster rooming house rather than try to close it

Monday

Mar 24, 2014 at 12:07 PMMar 24, 2014 at 12:11 PM

PORTSMOUTH — The city has filed a lawsuit against the owner of a Brewster Street boarding house, asking the court to issue a “permanent injunction” against Brian Hogan forcing him to fix ongoing health, safety and building code violations at the facility.

Jeff McMenemy

PORTSMOUTH — The city has filed a lawsuit against the owner of a Brewster Street boarding house, asking the court to issue a “permanent injunction” against Brian Hogan forcing him to fix ongoing health, safety and building code violations at the facility.

Even though City Attorney Robert Sullivan contends in the lawsuit that the rooming house has been operating illegally since the City Council voted on March 1 to deny its boarding house permit, the city is asking for the court’s help to force Hogan to fix the violations, rather than trying to close the facility.

The city received a petition from the residents of the facility, “many of whom do not own cars and need to live at the facility to access their jobs, who feel they will not be able to get housing in the city if the facility is shut down,” the lawsuit states.

“The city does not seek to shut down the facility and cause the current residents of the facility to become displaced or homeless,” Sullivan writes in the lawsuit.

Sullivan argues in the lawsuit that the permanent injunction is needed because Hogan has failed to deal with numerous health, fire safety and building codes, including a recent bed bug infestation at the 21 Brewster St. facility.

Sullivan also points out in the lawsuit filed in Rockingham County Superior Court on Monday morning that police have been called to the rooming house, Brewster Rooms, on numerous occasions in the past year alone.

“Substantial city resources were further expended in 2013 with 43 police calls to the facility, including but not limited to 11 noise complaints, several complaints involving intoxication, one requiring protective custody, assault, three domestic disputes, stalking, disorderly conduct, harassment and several well-being checks,” Sullivan wrote in the lawsuit. “Many of these complaints involved residents’ use of drugs and alcohol.”

The city filed the lawsuit against The Brian Hogan Revocable Trust of 2008 — Hogan became owner of the boarding house in 2005 and turned over his interest in the property to the trust in 2008 — and Bach Realty, LLC., of Center Ossipee, a real estate company with Hogan as registered agent, according to the lawsuit.

“The city is seeking permanent injunctive relief to require Hogan and Bach to abate the conditions causing a public nuisance,” the lawsuit states.

The city entered into a consent order with Hogan in July 2006 after it filed a lawsuit against the boarding house owner to address ongoing code violations at the facility, according to the lawsuit.

The agreement ordered Hogan to address “89 items to bring the facility up to code and in compliance with local zoning ordinances,” but since then various city departments — including police, fire, and health department officials — have constantly had to deal with issues at the Brewster Street facility, which “substantially exceeded similar efforts required by any other property” in the city, Sullivan states.

“The city has received numerous complaints from residents of the facility and from the Islington Creek Neighborhood Association and other members of the public regarding Hogan and Bach’s ongoing failure to address public health, safety and welfare concerns at the facility,” Sullivan states in the lawsuit.

City officials held several meetings with Hogan and association members in response to these concerns, which prompted the City Council to issue five interim boarding house permits, each one requiring the owner to address various health and safety concerns at the rooming house.

City employees conducted an inspection of the boarding house on Feb. 4 and found numerous violations, including “failure to replace broken furniture and appliances, failure to clean walls and floors, failure to abate ongoing bed bug infestation ... failure to provide sufficient lighting in common bathrooms ... and a failure to supply soap and towels in he shared bathroom facilities,” Sullivan states in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit asks the court to “issue an order permanently enjoining Hogan and Bach from failing to comply” with all city and state housing codes, municipal ordinances and permit regulations and to fine Hogan every day until the order is met.

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